A June Murphy Update

This smile makes me melt!!

Kaiya
Kaiya is growing up so fast! And I don't just mean physically, this girl just will not stop learning new things. This month she's reached the following milestones (Americanpregnancy.com listed age of earliest acheivement is in parenthasis):

• Holds objects but does not reach for them (3 months)
• Clutches own hands and pulls at blankets and clothes (3 months)
• Follows objects 180 degrees (3 months)
• Locates sound by turning head and looking in the same direction (3 months)
• Squeals, coos, babbles, and chuckles (3 months)
• “Talks” when spoken to (3 months)
• Recognizes faces, voices, and objects (3 months)
• Smiles when he/she sees familiar people, and engages in play with them (3 months)
• Shows awareness to strange situations (3 months)
• Good head control (4 months)
• Sits with support (4 months)
• Rolls from back to side (4 months) - she does this all the time. She sleeps on her side much of the time.
• Explores and plays with hands (4 months)
• Makes consonant sounds (4 months)
• Enjoys being rocked, bounced or swung (4 months)
• Holds head up when sitting (5 months)
• Begins to discover parts of his/her body (5 months)
• Lifts head when pulled to a sitting position (6 months)- I don't know about "lifting" she just holds it up like a normal person.
• Rolls from back to stomach (6 months) - she can do this, but she doesn't do it regularly because she refuses to take her hand out of her mouth for long enough to roll over her arm.
• Bears majority of weight when being held in a standing position (6 months)- Here, I should mention that she bears ALL of her weight. We can literally just let her grasp our fingers and she'll  stand on her own. It's truly ridiculous.

We went to her 2 month appointment and she was 12lbs 5 oz in weight and 23.5 inches long. That puts her in the 51st percentile for weight and the 76th percentile for height. She's definitely not a "big" girl but she's a healthy one.

The big "2 month" appointment goal is vaccinations. This was painful for both Kaiya and us parents and left her fussy for about 4 days.

Look at this face :(

I want to state here that I am fully supportive of families that choose not to vaccinate their children. I find this issue to be highly charged with parents (mostly moms) that are either feverently insistant that all children get vaccinated or those that believe that vaccinations are dangerous and mostly unnecessary. I did my research, I talked to multiple pediatritions and doctors alike and ultimeately decided to hold off on getting the Hep B vaccination for the time being and to space out the PCV (Pneumococcus) vaccine from the others so that it's not given at the same time. It does mean we have to do a couple vaccine-only appointments, but it was the right decision for us (and Kaiya).

My favorite new thing she's going is sticking out her tongue. It's too stinking cute!!

Me (Sarah)
I am just a couple short weeks from going back to work. Where has the time gone?! These past three months have just been so incredibly amazing. We've traveled, seen tons of family and friends, and I've been able to watch Kaiya grow into a strong, alert, beautiful baby with the sweetest possible personality. As much as I love my work, I will always wish that I could be with her as she reaches all of her new milestones.

In conjunction with staring at Kaiya all day, I'm also at the tail end of yet another of my holistic nutrition classes. This class is on macronutrients, the next one on micronutrients. It's good stuff and keeps me busy procrastinating:) At this pace I'll have my degree in 3 years. Slow and steady wins this race.

John

John is officially on paternity leave! You'll find him checking off items on the punch list he's been compiling since he solidified the dates of his paternity leave, including painting door frames, fixing the scratches on the hardwood floors and finally spackling and painting. I'm super excited to see these items finally done! We are incredibly blessed that Miriam's Kitchen cares so much about their employees that they pimp out their benefits package. I just know that the two weeks that John and Kaiya will spend alone together after I go back to work will be incredibly special to John (it'll also help me to ease back into work knowing that she's with John!)

Cooper

Enough said:)

Kaiya's Travels in the South!

I won't lie, I've heard more than once that we were crazy to try and accomplish a 10 day car trip with a 2 month old. Truth is, I probably wouldn't have chanced it if it wasn't for important family reasons. In the end though, I was utterly in awe of the ease in which Kaiya traveled. She was the perfect little angel the entire trip!

I should note here that I had hundreds of awesome photos of our trip and all the family members that met Kaiya, only to have a dreadful sequence of events lead to the lose of the SD card. I'm so sad about it, but I can only be grateful I didn't loss the camera and that I had a number of photos on our phones :/

Emerald Island, NC

We started off our travels in Emerald Isle, NC. This was the location of John's family reunion, the first in 30 years! Aside from meeting a ton of "new" family members, we enjoyed a couple days of sun and sand... Who am I kidding? There was plenty of sun and WAY too much sand. I spent the entire time trying to keep Kaiya out of the sun and sand off of her face and out of her eyes. Which, as you guessed, was a losing battle. I've always been more of a pool girl. It made for some beautiful pictures though:)

    

    

    

Asheville, NC

The drive from Emerald Isle to Nashville is an 11 hour drive, not counting the stops necessary to nurse and change Kaiya, so we decided to make a little stop in Asheville, NC. I had always wanted to see Asheville and I've heard awesome things about it so we made a reservation at a nice little apartment on airbnb.com (we love that site) and spent a restful 18 hours in the quaint little city. 

Originally we had planned to do the Biltmore, but waiting to buy tickets meant it would have been a very expensive day. Tickets were $59 a piece! No thank you. Instead we went to the Asheville Botanical Gardens and spent a couple hours walking around on a beautifully sunny day. (I SO wish I had some of the pictures from this, they would have been beautiful :(

We also had the opportunity to eat at a couple of the city's little restaurants. One thing is for sure, the food scene in Asheville was great!

    
   

Nashville, TN

Since we had a few days until we needed to be in Cookeville, TN to help with Bo and Leah's wedding, we took advantage of the down time by heading out towards Nashville, which is where much of my family has relocated. It was such a joy to be able to introduce Kaiya to so much of the family! We stayed with Aunt KK and Uncle Jeff and were only bummed that Uncle Jeff had to take off on a business trip and that we weren't able to spend more time with Aunt KK during the day. Visiting during the week while everyone had to work has it's downsides. 

On Tuesday we took Kaiya over to visit Emily, Brian, Ella and Wesley. As always, we had a lovely time! We enjoyed a delicious lunch full of perfect conversation and lots of kiddie time. I'm SO happy that Kaiya will have cousins (2nd cousins once removed to be exact) so close to her age! I think Ella likes the idea too ;)

That night we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house, then we all out to dinner with Uncle Mark, Aunt Deidree, and cousins Delaney and Eli. Kaiya was, of course, a hit, though she slept through most of dinner.

Delaney greeting Kaiya

The following day we took it easy in the morning. Kaiya needed a bit of down time, as evident by her very fussy morning. All she wanted to do was be held and nap. Poor girl.

That evening we went to Uncle Mark and Aunt Deidree's house for dinner with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt KK. I have to tell you that Aunt Deidree makes the most delicious cheesy bread I have ever had and Uncle Mark grills a perfectly moist and well seasoned cut of meat. Add to that all the other yummy sides Aunt Deidree made and I'll have dinner at their place any time:)

    

    

Cookeville/McMinnville, TN

Our purpose for traveling to Cookeville on Thursday was to help Leah and Bo get ready for their big day! We were so excited to share their big day with them. John helped Bo up at the farm while I brought Kaiya up to meet Leah and help stick monograms on favors. Kaiya was an instant fan of Leah:)

On Friday the rest of the family arrived to attend the rehearsal dinner. Kaiya showed up sporting her little Tennessee cheerleading outfit, which John had been saving specifically for this event:)

Kaiya and Grandpa Russ

Kaiya with Uncle Matt and Aunt Lauren

A night picture of the beautiful tent for Saturday's wedding

Then, at long last, Saturday arrived and it was wedding day! We started the day with a little Murphy tradition: Cracker Barrel breakfast. How handome are these Murphy boys?!

After breakfast we just spent some time visiting.

Until FINALLY it was time for the event we'd all been waiting for. Bo and Leah's wedding was simply perfect. Cheyenne and I joked that we now know what it's like to live inside pinterest for a night. There wasn't a detail forgotten, and the pictures from my iphone don't do it justice so you'll just have to trust me that it was epic.

        

    

    

Ultimately, taking the risk and traveling with Kaiya so that we could be a part of John's family reuinion, have the opportunity tointroduce Kaiya to so many family members, and witness the joining of two of our favorite people was totally worth it. We were just lucky that Kaiya was a complete rockstar because it will forever be a trip worth remembering :) 

And, since Kaiya seems to be a little travel bug already (2 months into life) I've started a little map to keep track of all her destinations! Note: Red dots are locations she has spent at least 1 night. The purple dots are confirmed upcoming trips:)

Check out the Map Directory at StepMap

Kaiya- 2 Months!

It's crazy how fast time is going. My baby is two months old already! A part of me is sad that she's growing up so fast, but the other part of me is so happy to watch her grow! She has pretty good neck control at this point, though she's still a little bobbly. The stronger she gets, the easier it is to pick her up and multi-task since you don't have to support her neck as much. She's getting better and better about sleeping through the night too! The night before last she slept until 6am, fed, and then slept until 9am. Essentially, I was up before she was. There are still some nights when she refuses to go back in her bassinet, but the past couple nights she's been fine in there.

My favorite time of the day with Kaiya is when she first wakes up. I call it "Smiley Time" because she's always so HAPPY! She starts to stir, I peek over her bassinet and say good morning and she melts my heart because I'm always greeted with this:

Morning smiles

An uber adorbable tidbit is that in the past couple days she's suddenly discovered all the mobiles that are hanging over everything. She entertained herself for a full 20 minutes yesterday by smiling and cooing away at the little bears above her swing. It's so awesome watching her discover the world around her!

Kaiya is also officially in 0-3 month clothes. I had to put away all the newborn stuff, which was a little sad. The following picture memorialized the moment I made that decision. Note that this sleeper is not a short-sleeve sleeper ;)

Last morning in newborn clothes

In other news, Grandma Brenda sent John a photo the other day of him as a baby and I was stunned. Every time I say Kaiya looks just like her daddy people always say "She looks a little like you too" or "I don't know who she looks like more." Well people, if pictures like this don't prove it to you:

Twins!

Than maybe this one will:

How crazy is that?! If the quality of the picture on the right didn't LOOK like it was taken in 1987, I'd have thought it was of Kaiya.

And while I Kaiya may not look like me, we do share one thing:

Yes, ladies and gentleman, I've been saving my baby blanket for the past 30 years. It's still my favorite blanket for her because it's so so soft and the perfect weight for using in an air conditioned apartment:)

Finally, I'll leave you with a little collage of my favorite pics from the past couple of weeks: